Horizon Forbidden West got a surprise development update during Gamescom Opening Night Live 2021. While we didn't get to see any new footage, developer Guerrilla Games confirmed what we we've all been thinking: the game won't make it out this year after all.
However, we did get a defined release date. Horizon Forbidden West launches on both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on the 18th February, 2022. Sony says that pre-orders will go live in just over a week, starting from the 2nd September.
But hey, at least you've got time to replay Horizon Zero Dawn before Aloy's next adventure arrives. The PS4 exclusive just got a PS5 update patch that allows the game to run at 60 frames-per-second on Sony's current-gen console. Lovely.
Did you see this coming? Take aim at giant robot dinosaurs in the comments section below.
Comments 78
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah. That’s great.
Awesome. Not too long into 2022 to wait
I'm completely fine with this. I have plenty of things to play.
At least we have a date now!
That's honestly sooner than I expected. Looks great.
Well that’s disappointing. But expected I suppose.
Well not really surprising tbh, but prefer to wait a bit more for a finished product.
Is anything coming out in 2021?
Game of the Year 2022, FACT.
60fps patch for the first one too!
Very nice. I wasn't expecting it that early in the year so this is great news.
It'll be a big start to 2022 with this and Elden Ring. Hopefully there's nothing else too big between now and then.
Unsurprised by this, but still surprised that Playstation is now almost certainly not going to have a summer / fall event.
Elden Ring and Pokemon Legends Arceus in January, Horzion Forbidden West in February.
Seems like 2022 starts awesome
Not great, not terrible. Was still hoping for a 2021 release :/
So nothing else by Sony in 2021? What a shame.
Not unexpected but still sucks to see that the only PS-centric news to come out of ONL are basically "bad news".
As expected. It’s okay at least the game will be great
Sure seems like Sony tried to shove as many games as they could when PS5 launched and were banking on this for end of 2021 and now they have nothing.
Sony carried 2021 fact. They don't need to release anymore games yet.
Good to have a confirmed release date now.
Although I'll be waiting for PS4 gameplay before buying.
Glad there's going to be a bit of space between this and BotW2 this time.
@fR_eeBritney Kena Bridge Of Spirits looks sensational and is out next month
Great timing! I know Lost Judgment is going to take up most of my fall along with Halo Infinite this year anyway so this delay actually works out great in my opinion.
Plus Sony put out two big games this year already so I'd say I'm pretty happy with the game output at the moment.
@FatalBubbles pretty much. The ps5 trailers hinted at a lot of iconic sequel exclusives for 2021. Horizon and god of war spring to mind. However, covid has probably set everyone (developers and manufacturers) back 18 months to 2 years.
So no big Sony exclusives for the holidays while Xbox has Forza and Halo? Ouch.
Elden ring and horizon.back to back epic months.word up son
@uptownsoul Kena looks awesome but I could live with Deathloop being delayed to 2023 🤣
@velio84 can't think of a better 1, 2 punch
@uptownsoul 2022 might be the year I buy a PS5. If the games aren’t delayed again.
@playstation1995 back to back GOTY contenders! yo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Won’t get to play it over the Christmas hols but Feb is normally a time when I’m feeling a bit of a lull so be great for this to land then.
There's enough third party games coming out on ps5 until Horizon FW unleashes. If ever there was a time to not release exclusives, it would be now. Even the PS4 had barren periods.
Oh, how nice of Sony to wait for Gamescom to tell us something they could have commented on weeks ago, back when it was first rumored.
And here we thought they had nothing in the pipeline for us to look forward to!
@uptownsoul I like lots of games. Unfortunately most of them are coming out in 2022 now. I don’t think anyone rejoices when a game they’re really looking forward to is delayed. At least by the time I do buy a PS5 it should have been patched with all the features that should have been there at launch. I did the whole early adoption thing with the PS3 and PS4 so I know how these things work. Live and learn.
Can we get a date for the PS5 Pro Director's Cut Edition?
That’s brilliant! Will BotW 2 also release in Feb now 😂
Ouch... There goes my excitement for the rest of the year. Was really looking forward to this release after playing the original on PC.
Not really surprising, but still a bit of a shame as it was sort of show off as a 'Launch window' game and now it's going to be 16 months after launch.
Elden Ring: Jan
HZD: Feb
BloodLine2: March
Works perfectly for me.
Next year is gonna be AMAZING for PlayStation games + I always knew that the Virus would delay games eventually. Saying that SONY have done well so far with their Exclusives getting them out on PS5's launch and a few this year so far.
@Ralizah BotW2 was the first thing I thought of when I saw the Feb 2022 date. You don't think Zelda could be that early? I know they won't release too close to Arceus but I still think they must be planning on early 2022 or why keep talking about it? Heck we even got a fairly decent look. Unless you think Splatoon 3 is first, Zelda later, which it could be.
Well that gives Xbox a free run at Christmas, what with Forza Horizon 5 and Halo infinite coming out.
Super excited. Glad it's not next summer.
Great start to 2022, Elden Ring, Horizon and Sifu all releasing within a 4 week period.
There's still a few great third party releases so 2021 isn't barren but after the great start from Sony's first party teams it's disappointing they couldn't get a big fall release this year. Especially pathetic when looking at Insomniac's out put. I give Santa Monica a pass but no excuse for Polyphony or Guerrilla not to have their games ready. Can't help but wonder if the ridiculous decision to make Horizon: Forbidden West and GT 7 cross-gen has played a role in the delays.
@Nightcrawler71
Yup. And even if it's not all the kind of games I like outside of Metroid, Nintendo also has a solid lineup. Wouldn't be surprised if both have better holiday sales than Sony at least in North America. Barring a major surprise Nintendo should continue to lead in Japan, Europe is the region that will be most interesting.
Removed - unconstructive
Am sad but Feb 2022 will be here before we know it. Having a solid date is comforting though. Already tried the 60fps patch as have had it installed prepared for this moment! It is glorious and feels like a whole new game. Can’t wait to replay it and give frozen wilds some attention
@Gamer83 No excuse? Yeah you're right, it's not as if industries across the world have all struggled and experienced setbacks because of a global pandemic. How inexcusable and pathetic of them to not have their game ready for you this year. 🙄
@Intr1n5ic
When I see what Insomniac has managed to do, yeah, no excuse. Guerrilla had plenty of time to get the game done for this Holiday.
@Gamer83 So your yardstick for what should be achievable is insomniac, despite the fact that they operate at a level that literally no other developers operate at on any platform?
@Intr1n5ic
Yes that's one of them. I'd throw Capcom in there as well which got full Monster Hunter and Resident Evil games out on multiple platforms. Namco seems to be doing fine. I'm standing by what I wrote. You can argue, you can try to make me feel guilty, I don't. Horizon: Zero Dawn was Feb. 2017, there was more than enough time to get the sequel ready by now.
I doubt I'll find a PS5 by then anyways, so it could be 2023 and it wouldn't likely matter much.
@Gamer83 Capcom has 6x the employees of both Insomniac and Guerrilla combined. Bandai Namco Studios has 3x the employees of Guerrilla, but yes, there's no excuse for why 300+ people can't do the work of 1000.
Guerrilla needed more time to polish the final product and not force their staff to crunch, end of story. Sitting at home and typing away on the Internet about how inexcusable and pathetic it is makes you look worse than anything they're doing.
@Gamer83 the reason horizon was delayed was largely because it relies so heavily on motion capture and the studios were closed due to covid which set it back. Developers have already explained this. Ratchet and clank is a different animal. A linear, much, much shorter game with limited characters, story and script etc. You can’t say “oh insomniac could do it”
This was expected. If anybody still thought this had a chance of coming out this year, they were fooling themselves. No offense, but the writing has been on the wall for a while now.
Still, I'm cool with this as it's not that long of an extra wait as this was probably going to come out in September or October at the earliest if things were normal. It's early in the year, so I'm good. Gives me time to play Kena, Life is Strange: True Colors, anything else that gets my attention before then (like maybe JETT), and some of my backlog.
@rjejr They're "targeting" 2022, which means either Christmas of that year or, more realistically, 2023.
I don't think there's a chance it releases before Splatoon 3.
A lot of games in February but this is top of the list for me.
@Gamer83 @Intr1n5ic To me I don't even see any of Insomniac's games coming close to Horizon Zero Dawn's level tbh. It'd look obvious to the average Joe that a game like Horizon would need a longer time for development than any Spiderman.
I never expected it this year or that early next year so i'm happy.
omg omg omg omg omg 2022 is going to be a great year!
GoW or HFW for GOTY!!!! who knows.
can't wait!
Not trolling but, do they have any exclusive games for the rest of the year?
They could've released the PS4 version this year and released the PS5 version next year.
@Arcnail Nothing new as far as I know. The only exclusive left is Death Stranding Director's Cut if I am not mistaken.
This is such a shame - though, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Oh well, I still have plenty to keep me occupied on my other systems for the remainder of the year: Psychonauts 2 on Series X, Metroid Dread on Switch in October, Forza Horizon 5 in November on Series X, Halo Infinite in December on Series X.
I may replay Horizon Zero Dawn in 60fps since I did lose my completed save file anyways. I will also upgrade to Death Stranding Director's Cut and replay that as well since I also lost that save file, too.
With most of my PS5 Library almost finished there's not going to be much left to play on it now. PS5 shouldn't have been launched during this time IMHO.
This was to be expected but that doesn't mean I'm not peed off about this because I am. I wonder why I bought the PS5 at all when most games for it are also on PS4. It's laughable really.
@GamingFan4Lyf Halo died after Halo 3 tbh. Halo 4 wasn't a bad game but it just didn't have the same impact, it's the same with 5. I likely won't be bothering with Infinite for Series X.
@Arcnail Timed and PlayStation console exclusive yes, most of them are coming to PC as well though.
Solar Ash
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Jett: the far shore
F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch
Deathloop
Death Stranding: Directors Cut
Edge Of Eternity
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
And the upgraded standalone version of GTA 5 multiplayer is exclusively free for PS5 players until February 2022.
All releasing on PlayStation before the end of the year.
@RubyCarbuncle I am not a huge Halo fan (I prefer Gears), but I get Game Pass Ultimate for free, so I won't say no to free games - especially high profile free games.
I am also not a huge racing game fan, but I will casually play Forza Horizon 5 for a few weeks.
@GamingFan4Lyf Ahh fair enough Have fun either way.
@JapaneseSonic agreed!
@Dalejrfanfreak Sony never had a issue skipping holidays. They release theirgames when they are done in a good quality.
Didnt Returnal and Rachet and Clank release this year.
@TheArt Still great games and im happy they where released. 😁
I would pre-order on PS4 if they would confirm it will run 30fps.
@Ralizah Man if it's 2023 I may be done with Nintendo and never play it. 😝
If we ever find out God of War 2 is only part 2 of 3, not Ragnarok, just Fimbulvinter, I may be done with gaming entirely.🤷♂️
@Gamer83
I’d rather they delay it a few months and give us a game that needs minimal patches to run decent.
When games are rushed out the door we end up having to download patches that are larger than the initial install size. See Cyberpunk for reference.
@JapaneseSonic
I remember that drought vividly. I got my PS4 in February of 2014 and outside of Infamous and a few third party games I was mostly playing my PS3 backlog for the rest of the year.
Well we did the Last of Us Remastered, which was my first time experiencing the game. I never owned the PS3 version.
I hope these PS5 games are not being delayed because they have to make the PS4 versions to??? :-/ Hmm. I just hope by the end of next year I'll stop seeing - 'for PS5 and PS4' really. Or next Gen I won't jump in so quickly. Oh well.
Shame about the delay, but the game looks more impressive than before! It's clear they are taking the time to really polish it out.
Day one buy for me for sure, unless something comes up.
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